This Little Chair
I was recently in an elementary classroom completing an installation for a school district who had purchased our product (The Guardian Angel), and this chair caught my eye. It is summer time and no students are in schools now on a regular basis, but this little chair spurred images of my two year old son through my mind. I began to see his little body sitting in that chair, in just a few years he would begin pre-school. I began to think about him going to lunch without me, interacting with his classmates, playing on the playground and learning some of his very first life lessons, sitting in that little chair. I took out my cell phone and took this picture, and then quickly sent it to my wife in a text. I wrote “Our son will be in one of these before we know it.”
It didn’t take very long for my mind to connect these sacred thoughts of my child with the very reason I was at that school. Many of you know I co-created and manufacture a door security device that prevents or slows active shooters from accessing classrooms. At that moment, my thoughts turned to what-ifs. What if my son was in school when one of these horrific events took place. Who would be sure to find him and protect him? I can only image what the families have gone through that have lost a child to an active shooter. The thought of passing a nearby TV with breaking news reports showing helicopter images of a live shooter event at my son’s elementary would be too much to bear. How helpless would I feel, probably miles away, unable to call him, instruct him or protect him. It was truly a spiritual moment in that classroom looking at that little chair he would sit in one day.
In the moment that tragedy is about to occur, I would certainly want something (anything) between my son and an evil shooter. Its unfortunate we live in a climate where sending our kids to school everyday holds the potential for the unspeakable. This is what motivates our company everyday to build the very best product we can and to expose it to as many schools, universities and businesses as possible. We are thankful for those who train everyday in emergency response. We owe a great deal of respect to the police, fire and medical responders who dedicate their lives, and risk them at times, to protect the innocent sitting in that little chair.
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Justin M. Osburn is a door security expert and owns and operates SOS Systems, LLC. SOS Systems manufactures and sells a patent-protected, active-shooter interior door security device called the Guardian Angel. It stops, slows and/or thwarts active shooters from accessing classrooms or offices or any other type of room. Need a speaker about school safety or want to learn how to protect your school using door security devices? Call Justin at 660.227.1123 or email him at [email protected]
Photo Credits: Copyright: Justin M. Osburn